High Honors for Heritage

The Michigan Traditional Arts Program of the Michigan State University Museum announces honorees in two programs celebrating cultural heritage in Michigan: the 2018 Michigan Heritage Awards (MHA) and the 2018 Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (MTAAP) recipients.

The Michigan Heritage Award (MHA) is the state’s highest distinction to honor individuals who continue their family, community, or cultural traditions with excellence and devotion.

“The Michigan Heritage Awards are presented each year to honor master tradition bearers in Michigan who continue the folk traditions of their families and communities through practice and teaching,” explains Marsha MacDowell, Curator of Folk Arts at the MSU Museum and Director of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program.

Since 1987, the MSU Museum’s Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (MTAAP) has supported the teaching and passing on of Michigan’s cultural traditions by awarding funds to master artists and their apprentices. As part of this program, a master artist works with an apprentice for a period of seven months. Past apprenticeships have helped sustain traditions in diverse art forms such as fiddling, quill box making, storytelling, blacksmithing, tamale making, and rag rug weaving. MTAAP master artists receive a monetary stipend for working with the apprentices in their traditional art form.

The Michigan Heritage Awards and Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program are supported this year primarily by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs with additional support from the Marsha MacDowell and C. Kurt Dewhurst Traditional Artists Endowment. The awards were given out following a thorough review by a panel of folklife scholars and educators. The nominations and applications were considered based on depth of experience, community engagement, representation of the tradition, samples of work, and the relationship between tradition-bearer and apprentice when determining the merit of each award.
Learn more here: http://traditionalarts.msu.edu/ or by contacting the Michigan Traditional Arts Program at msum.mtap@gmail.com or (517) 353-5526.